San Francisco is barely in the planning stages of a new city-wide Wi-Fi system, the city's mayor open to ideas on how best to "unwire" all 49 square miles. The goal is 1Mbps service to everyone, with poorer communities receiving access for free. Daydream or not, mayor Gavin Newsom claims it will cost taxpayers nothing.

As we saw in Philly, bell funded think tanks are already trying to derail the effort. You see in California - unlike Philly - bell lobbyists haven't yet been able to convince lawmakers to ban community broadband "for your own good". That has forced them to fall-back on what these think tanks do best: disinformation & fear mongering.

Like clockwork, once a month Sonia Arrison rants against the evil that is community broadband over at TechNewsWorld. This month she takes aim at San Francisco's plan before she's actually even seen it. The plan is unnecessary apparently, because the city currenly exists in a state of broadband nirvana, says Arrison. "Fees for broadband have been dropping at an amazing rate," claims Arrison, who works for the Pacific Research Institute.

The Institute - surprise surprise - gets paid by Verizon and SBC. "DSL service used to cost around US$50, but now one can buy SBC's DSL for $14.95," says Arrison. "Strangely, these facts don't seem to resonate with local government bureaucrats. Instead, they think that residents of San Francisco should have "nomadic" wireless broadband access and they should have it now." The nerve! Can we impeach them?

I won't say too much about how SBC's $14.95 DSL deal is really a one year, new user only introductory offer, which requires users also pay for a local phone line (real price: $30-$60). I won't lament Sonia's use of misleading FCC zip code statistics to suggest public Wi-Fi isn't necessary. I won't ramble about how in some cases muni-competition helps lower prices via competition. I won't go on at length about how her frequently used list of "muni-broadband failures" has been completely discredited by multiple organizations.

These facts wouldn't resonate with Sonia, because she's got a paid job to do: convince you that muni-broadband is as senseless and evil as paving roads with puppies. In reality it's a niche solution that fails or succeeds based on the quality of the plan. In this case, we haven't seen the plan yet.

We're sure San Franciscans appreciate your advice, Sonia, but they're better served listening to someone who isn't being paid to manipulate them.